2019 Bibi Graetz Colore

The Colore is the flagship and top model Bibi Graetz and is in fact a single vineyard wine as more than 90% of the grapes come from old vines (these are majestic plants of 80 to 135 years old) at a high altitude in the Lamole where Bibi five hectares farms. The addition of Colorino to this Sangiovese-based wine has been reduced to just 5% in this 2018 vintage: "Like a touch of lipstick, it gives the extra touch," says Bibi. The Colore is a wine with structure and backbone with intense red berries, red cherry, ferruginous earth, crushed flowers and some of the fragrant herbs. What an intense aroma of cherries and raspberries which, with time in the glass, change into flowers, roses and orange peel. This is really full bodied and powerful with layers of ripe tannins with wonderful length and intensity.

The Colore is a wine made with traditional Tuscan grapes sourced from some of the oldest and rarest vineyards in the region. The Sangiovese represent the structure and strength of the wine and the Colorino grape gives velvety tannins. Only the best few barrels of the entire production become Colore. The grapes used for Colore come mainly from the Lamole vineyard (90%), with a little from Vincigliata located in Siena. Each vineyard has been harvested up to 8 times and the grapes are all harvested by hand at the correct ripeness point. After the first selection in the vineyard, a second selection takes place at the winery for de-stemming. The berries at this stage were gently pressed and placed in open-topped barriques, with great care being taken to keep each plot separate. The fermentation is carried out by native natural yeasts (i.e. the yeasts on the grape) with 6 to 8 manual puchdowns per day, without temperature control for 2 weeks with 1 additional week of maceration on the skins. After fermentation, the wine is moved to new barriques, where the malolactic fermentation takes place. The wine matures for 3 years before it becomes available.

Give this wine time to mature and open fully and our advice is not to open it until around 2023, although it is very nice to try the development with a Coravin . The 2019 vintage has received very high ratings 96/100 Parker and 99/100 Suckling. Suckling writes in his review: "....This is an incredible combination of fruit and structure. Old-vine magic" The 2019 vintage is in a special bottle because of its 20th anniversary and is therefore called: COLORE 20TH ANNIVERSARY